Caskets have traditionally been employed for burial of the dead, both for in-ground burial and above-ground interment. Caskets are normally fabricated from fine furniture-grade wood or from highly polished/finished sheet metal for aesthetic reasons. So-called cremation containers, on the other hand, may be fabricated of cardboard, hardboard or plywood, and as such are usually much less ornate than wood or metal caskets and therefore much less expensive, and have been employed as containers for the dead for which the family has chosen cremation as the means for ultimate disposition of the body. Both caskets and cremation containers traditionally include a lower shell or body portion and an upper cap or lid portion closeable on the lower portion. Due to their size and shape neither caskets nor cremation containers are cost-effectively shipped.
Efforts at increasing the cost-effectiveness of shipping caskets and cremation containers have been directed toward the design and development of so-called "knock-down" or "ready-to-assemble" caskets, that is to say, caskets which are shipped in a non-erected, compact package which are then erected at the shipping destination. A major goal of designers of such knock-down caskets has been to produce designs which are relatively quickly and simply erected with few or no tools being required. Success in this area has been more readily achieved in the case of cremation containers rather than in caskets, as cremation containers are by their very nature much less expensive than caskets and as such the fabrication techniques employed in knock-down designs detract from their appearance to a much lesser degree than do they from caskets.
One example of a knock-down casket is disclosed in the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,016, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. It is desirable to improve upon the design of the casket in the assignee's '016 patent, as particularly relates to cremation containers.